From astronauts circling the moon to spacecraft reaching Mercury and asteroids near Earth, 2026 is shaping up to be a landmark year for space exploration.
Governments and private companies alike are preparing missions that could redefine how humans live and work in space, deepen our understanding of the solar system and push exploration farther than it’s gone in decades.
1) Artemis 2 sends astronauts around the moon
NASA’s Artemis 2 mission will carry four astronauts on a roughly 10-day journey around the moon, marking humanity’s first crewed mission beyond low Earth orbit since Apollo 17 in 1972.
Flying aboard the Orion spacecraft atop the Space Launch System (SLS) megarocket, Artemis 2 will test life-support systems, navigation and communications in deep space ahead of future lunar landings. The crew includes NASA astronauts Reid Wiseman (commander), Victor Glover (pilot) and Christina Koch (mission specialist), along with Canadian Space Agency astronaut Jeremy Hansen (mission specialist). The mission is currently targeting a launch no earlier than Feb. 5, 2026, though the exact date will depend on technical readiness, with the available launch window extending into April.
Artemis 2 is a critical proving ground for future lunar landings, including Artemis 3. Its success would mark the true beginning of NASA’s sustained crewed return to the moon.
2) SpaceX pushes Starship toward Mars-ready milestones
SpaceX hopes to make 2026 a breakout year for its Starship megarocket by flying the vehicle to Earth orbit for the first time and demonstrating in-orbit cryogenic propellant transfer, a critical capability for future deep-space missions, such as journeys to the moon and Mars. While company founder and CEO Elon Musk has suggested a Mars launch attempt in 2026 is possible, he has also acknowledged the odds are roughly “50–50,” making orbital operations and refueling demonstrations the more likely near-term goals.
In parallel, SpaceX is working to achieve rapid reuse of both Starship elements — the Super Heavy booster and Ship upper stage. Even without an interplanetary launch, successfully reaching orbit, transferring propellant in space and quickly reusing hardware would represent a major technological leap — and could make 2026 a pivotal year in Starship’s path toward enabling sustained human exploration beyond Earth.
3) Blue Origin’s Mark 1 lunar lander demonstration
Blue Origin plans to launch its Blue Moon Mark 1 (MK1) lunar lander on a robotic demonstration mission to the moon in early 2026, with the spacecraft targeting a landing near Shackleton Crater at the moon’s south pole.
Standing about 26 feet (8 meters) tall, the lander is designed to deliver heavy cargo to the lunar surface and will fly atop the company’s New Glenn rocket. MK1 is the largest commercial lunar cargo lander ever built, capable of carrying significantly more payload than any of the vehicles sponsored by NASA’s Commercial Lunar Payload Services (CLPS) program. Although uncrewed, the mission will test precision landing technologies and surface operations critical to future lunar infrastructure, marking Blue Origin’s first attempt to reach the moon and a major step toward establishing commercial lunar logistics.
Ahead of launch, the company plans to conduct fully integrated ground tests to validate MK1’s systems and confirm flight readiness. If all goes according to plan, the mission’s payload will include NASA’s SCALPSS (Stereo Cameras for Lunar Plume Surface Studies) instrument, which will image the lunar surface during and after descent to study how landing plumes interact with the moon’s regolith.
4) Boeing’s Starliner-1 mission to the International Space Station
Boeing’s next Starliner flight, known as Starliner-1, is now planned as an uncrewed mission to the International Space Station (ISS), with launch targeted for no earlier than April 2026. The change follows issues encountered during Starliner’s first crewed flight test in 2024, when thruster problems prevented the spacecraft from returning its astronauts to Earth as planned. (The duo, NASA’s Suni Williams and Butch Wilmore, eventually came home aboard a SpaceX Crew Dragon capsule.)
Rather than carrying astronauts, Starliner-1 will focus on validating spacecraft upgrades, testing systems performance and delivering cargo to the orbiting lab as Boeing and NASA work toward full crew certification. NASA has since adjusted Boeing’s Commercial Crew contract, emphasizing safety and additional testing before Starliner resumes astronaut flights. The mission remains a critical step toward establishing Starliner as a second operational U.S. crew vehicle alongside Crew Dragon. Successfully completing the flight would help restore long-term redundancy for ISS crew rotations and move Boeing closer to full certification under NASA’s Commercial Crew Program.
5) Haven-1 launches first commercial space station
California-based startup Vast plans to launch Haven-1, the world’s first privately developed stand-alone space station, no earlier than May 2026.
The single-module station is designed to host short-duration crewed missions of up to 30 days, supporting research experiments, commercial activities and technology demonstrations. Haven-1 will ride into orbit aboard a SpaceX Falcon 9 rocket, with astronauts traveling to and from the station in Crew Dragon capsules. If successful, the mission could herald a new era of commercial space stations, potentially replacing or supplementing the aging ISS in the coming decade.
6) China’s Tianwen-2 reaches a ‘quasi-moon’ asteroid
China’s Tianwen-2 spacecraft is expected to arrive at the near-Earth asteroid Kamoʻoalewa in July 2026. The tiny object is often called a “quasi-moon” because its orbit around the sun closely tracks Earth’s path.
Tianwen-2 will attempt to collect surface samples, which are planned to return to Earth in late 2027, providing rare material for scientists to study the early solar system. Some researchers speculate the asteroid could be a fragment of the moon, making the samples especially valuable, though this hypothesis has yet to be confirmed. After the sample return, Tianwen-2 will continue its journey toward a main-belt comet for future exploration.
7) Rocket Lab debuts its Neutron rocket
Rocket Lab plans the first launch of its Neutron rocket in mid-2026, marking a major expansion of the company beyond small-satellite launches. Standing roughly 131 feet (40 meters) tall, Neutron is designed to be partially reusable, with the first stage capable of landing vertically for rapid turnaround between flights.
Neutron is intended to deploy large satellite constellations, carry national security payloads and eventually support crewed missions, representing Rocket Lab’s entry into the competitive heavy-lift launch market. The rocket’s debut has been delayed several times from its original 2024-2025 target as Rocket Lab refined the design and conducted additional testing to ensure reliability. Its upcoming launch will also demonstrate the company’s innovative payload fairing, nicknamed the “Hungry Hippo,” which opens and closes in orbit to facilitate payload deployment and recovery, underscoring Rocket Lab’s ambitions to compete with SpaceX and other major providers.
8) China launches the Chang’e 7 mission to the lunar south pole
China’s Chang’e 7 mission is scheduled to launch in mid- to late 2026, targeting the moon’s south pole, a region believed to contain water ice in permanently shadowed craters. The mission features a combination of spacecraft: an orbiter to map the lunar surface, a lander and rover to explore and analyze resources on the ground and a small hopping probe capable of traversing challenging terrain that conventional rovers cannot reach.
Chang’e 7 will also deploy a relay satellite to ensure continuous communication with Earth and to support scientific observations in the polar region. The mission aims to locate and characterize potential water-ice deposits, assess terrain hazards and demonstrate technologies needed for future crewed lunar missions, representing a key step in China’s long-term plan for a sustained presence on the moon.
9) ESA’s Hera mission arrives at the Didymos asteroid system
The European Space Agency’s (ESA) Hera spacecraft is scheduled to arrive at the binary asteroid system Didymos in November 2026 to investigate the aftermath of NASA’s 2022 DART impact, which successfully altered the orbit of the moonlet Dimorphos.
Hera will conduct high-resolution mapping of the impact crater, measure the asteroid’s mass and internal structure, and deploy two cubesats for close-up observations of surface properties and debris. By combining these data, scientists will gain critical insight into how kinetic impactors can change an asteroid’s trajectory — a key capability for planetary defense against potential Earth-bound threats and validating deflection techniques demonstrated by the DART mission.
10) BepiColombo finally reaches Mercury
After an eight-year journey involving multiple gravity-assist flybys of Earth, Venus and Mercury, ESA and JAXA’s BepiColombo mission will enter orbit around Mercury in November 2026. Over the course of its long cruise, the spacecraft has returned valuable science data and close-up images while testing its instruments in the extreme environment near the sun.
Once BepiColombo reaches Mercury, the spacecraft will separate into two science orbiters: ESA’s Mercury Planetary Orbiter (MPO), which will study the planet’s surface and interior, and JAXA’s Mercury Magnetospheric Orbiter (MMO), which will focus on Mercury’s powerful and highly dynamic magnetic environment. Together, the orbiters will investigate Mercury’s composition, geology, tenuous exosphere and magnetic field, helping scientists understand how the planet formed and evolved so close to the sun.
Operating just tens of millions of miles from the sun, BepiColombo must endure extreme temperatures and intense solar radiation, making it one of the most technically challenging planetary missions ever attempted — and one poised to deliver the most comprehensive view yet of the solar system’s innermost world.
11) China launches the Xuntian space telescope
China’s Xuntian space telescope, also known as the Chinese Space Station Telescope (CSST), is slated to launch in late 2026. The observatory houses a 2-meter-wide (6.6 feet) primary mirror, giving it light-gathering power comparable to — and in some survey modes surpassing — NASA’s Hubble Space Telescope.
Xuntian will operate as an ultraviolet-optical observatory in an orbit that allows it to periodically dock with the Tiangong space station for servicing, repairs and upgrades. With an expected minimum 10-year mission, Xuntian’s wide-field survey instruments will map vast regions of the universe, supporting studies of cosmology, dark matter and galaxy evolution, with the potential for mission extensions beyond its initial lifespan.
12) Dream Chaser makes its first orbital flight
Sierra Space’s Dream Chaser space plane is scheduled to make its first flight to orbit in late 2026, marking a major milestone for the reusable spacecraft after years of development and delays. The uncrewed mission will test Dream Chaser’s ability to launch atop a conventional rocket, operate autonomously in orbit and return to Earth with a runway landing similar to a conventional aircraft.
Dream Chaser is designed to provide a gentler reentry than capsule-based spacecraft for delivering more delicate scientific experiments and time-sensitive cargo from space. The vehicle is intended to support future cargo resupply missions to the ISS, and, if all goes according to plan, Sierra Space ultimately plans to develop a crewed version capable of carrying astronauts.
13) NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope launches
NASA’s Nancy Grace Roman Space Telescope is expected to launch in fall 2026, though the mission schedule allows for a margin extending into 2027. Roman will feature a field of view about 100 times larger than Hubble’s, enabling massive surveys of galaxies and stars, and making it one of NASA’s most powerful space observatories to date.
The space telescope’s primary science goals include studying dark energy, mapping dark matter and discovering thousands of exoplanets via gravitational microlensing, in which a massive foreground object bends the light of a background star, temporarily magnifying it like a lens.
Recently, NASA completed the full assembly of Roman’s major components — joining the spacecraft and telescope segments in its largest clean room at Goddard Space Flight Center in Maryland — a major milestone that sets the observatory up for final environmental testing and launch preparations this summer.
